February 28, 2013

Suzanne Grove and Ed Sheets have the official Johnstown Tomahawks weekend preview here.

The Johnstown Tomahawks make the 630 mile bus ride to Springfield IL to take on the Jr. Blues. This will be the 3rd and 4th game of the season between the two teams, with the first two taking place back at the CCWM early in the season.

Before we can get to all the wonderful stats, storylines, keys to the game, and whatever our little heart desire, we've got to check out the latest news and links.

News from Johnstown Tomahawks official website:

----Earlier this week the Tomahawks announced that fans can submit questions to the players to have them answered...

Do you have a question you would like to ask a Tomahawk? Well, here's your chance! The Tomahawks players want to hear from you. Please submit your question (1-2 sentences, please) along with your name, location, and the name of the player you would like to ask. Then, we'll randomly select questions from your submissions and the corresponding player will respond to you on here, Facebook, and Twitter!

You can submit your question by following this link to their official website.

---The Tomahawks have been busy making sure that next year's team does even better than this year. Johnstown, tendered four players for next season, Collin Finkhouse, Matt Meier, Aaron Bland, and Eric Tien. You can read the official press release from the 'Hawks here.

Here at Thetomablog we took a look at each tendered player to give you a small preview of what might be in store next season. That post is here.

**Great signings by Rick Boyd. This team, this year, has had problems scoring goals, but Boyd may have solved that problem for next season. Of course being tendered doesn't mean they'll make the team, we just have their rights, but judging on how talented they are, they shouldn't have a problem making the club.***

February 27, 2013

Mike Letizia is the Johnstown Tomahawks' current assistant coach beside head coach, Jason Spence. Along with having all the responsibilities an assistant coach has in the game of hockey, Letizia also oversee player development and video sessions. This was the press release the Tomahawks sent out via juniorhockey.com before the start of the season.

Before being named to the Tomahawks' coaching staff, Letizia, had a short but good career in the game of hockey. He began in juniors, playing for OHL's, Plymouth Whalers. Letizia was a solid defensman from the start of his first season. In 2002-2003 he played 60 games for the Whalers where he registered, two goals, seven assists, and nine points. He also had an incredible on ice rating of +27.

Former Johnstown Chiefs' goaltender, Ryan Nie, and NHLers Chris Thorburn and Tim Setito were also on the 02-03 Whalers team.

February 26, 2013

You can read the official Johnstown Tomahawks press releases about the signings today here.
Johnstown is third in the division in goals scored with 157, yet at times and recently, the Tomahawks have had trouble putting pucks in the net. Some people will say that this current team doesn't have enough scoring talent, that this team has a lot of 3rd and 4th line players, and for the most part they are right in their thinking.

Well Rick Boyd, The GM of the Tomahawks, and his staff today announced four players that have signed Tender contracts for next season. First off, for those that are new to junior hockey, what is a tender contract?

In the NAHL, a tender is a contract a player signs announcing his intentions to play for one particular NAHL team and that NAHL team only. Once a player signs a tender with an NAHL team, his playing rights belong to that team within the NAHL and he may not be recruited by any other NAHL team. Each team is granted ten (10) tenders - plus or minus any trades - which become active on Nov. 1. Tendered players are not eligible for the NAHL draft. Unless agreed upon in writing by the two NAHL teams, tendered or drafted players are not eligible to try out for other NAHL teams.

The four players signed today are Collin Finkhouse, Matt Meier, Aaron Bland, and Eric Tien.

February 25, 2013

The playoffs will be here very shortly, in fact the Tomahawks only have eight more games until playoff time. With playoffs so near the exact position where teams will finish are still anyone's guess.

The Soo Eagles, Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings, and Jamestown Ironmen all have clinched a playoff spot. There's still three spots remaining in the North division with five teams battling to win a spot. The North division is the only division in the league where six teams make the playoffs, every other division sends the top four.

The first round of the playoffs are schedule to be a Best-Of-Five series, except in the North.

The team in third place will play the team that finishes in sixth place in a Best-Of-Three play in series. The team in fourth will play the fifth place team in a Best-of-Three play-in series.

February 23, 2013

Johnstown could score only one goal as their offensive woes continue. The goal came 6:41 into the first period as Brandon Reinholz made a great pass to JB Baker, sending him on a partial breakaway towards goaltender Macauley Haight.

Johnstown would only hold the lead until Fresno's Mitchell Snyder was able to beat Chris Truehl at 15:45, the assists on the goal went to Newton Fuller and Gordon Wells. The game would remain scoreless the rest of the way through and would have to be settled in a shootout.

Just like in last night's game, Fresno's first shooter in the shootout was Newton Fuller. Again, just like last night, Fuller was able to find room between Truehl's left leg pad and post to give Fresno the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately for Johnstown, out of the four players who took a shot, no one was able to score a goal. The third shooter for Fresno, Mitchell Snyder, was able to put another one past Truehl to give them the insurance marker in the shootout.

Johnstown seemed to play a much better game tonight then they did in last night's game, but with problems scoring goals, they were met with the same results. Johnstown out shot Fresno, 40-19. Johnstown went 0 for 4 on the power play which included a five minute major on Matt Salituro for tripping (and a game ejection). Fresno went 0 for 2 on their power play opportunities.

Last night the Johnstown Tomahawks fell to the Fresno Monsters in a shootout, 3-2. Tonight the Tomahawks will look to bounce back and pick up two points before they head to Springfield next weekend.

Mike Mastovich, from the Tribune Democrat, has Spence quoted "We never had it tonight". Read the whole article here.

Ed Sheets, from the Johnstown Tomahawks, has the team's press release about last night's game. Read it here.

Michael
Gosnell, from Juniorhockey.com, has his game recap of last night's loss. You can red it here.

The NAHL announced their "Plays of the Week" for Feb 11-20. On the list is a goal by Cody Gylling. You can see all the plays on the video below. Gylling's goal, which came at the Top Prospects tournament, is the second to last highlight of the video.

February 22, 2013

You can click here to read the official Johnstown Tomahawks game review written by Ed Sheets.

If the Tomahawks can find a way to prevent giving up leads, they just might win the Robinson Cup. What hurts about tonight's game, even though we did get a point, is that teams like the Monsters shouldn't be a problem to play, yet for Johnstown they are.

Johnstown started off looking like it was going to be a high scoring night. 2:01 into the first, Cobi Smith-Mass got his third goal of the season, with the lone assist going to Cody Boyd. Then after eleven games without registering a point, Andrew Mcdonald scored against his former team. Connor Wright and Zach Wallace received the assists.

That would be all the goals Johnstown would score until the shootout. Fresno didn't play all that great but goaltender Tomas Sholl made a couple huge saves to keep Fresno in the game. The Monsters leading goal scorer, Matt Salituro, scored both Fresno's goals tonight. The first goal was in the first period on the power play, with the assist going to Trevor Husch at 14:10. Salituro's second goal of the game came in the second period, it was unassisted at the 16:08 mark, to tie the game at two.

There would be no more scoring until the shootout. Newton Fuller, the first shooter for Fresno was able to beat Chris Truehl to get the quick lead in the shootout. Cody Gylling was the only Tomahawks player to score in the shootout to tie it 1-1, third Johnstown shot in. Jacob McDowell, Fresno's fifth shooter, was able to beat Truehl blocker side, for the game winner.

Fresno was 1 for 5 on the power play, while Johnstown went 0 for 3.

Fresno out shot Johnstown 34-32.

Tomas Sholl picked up the win for the Monsters and improved his record to, 6-11-4 with a GAA of 3.12 and a save percentage of .901.

With the shootout loss, Chris Truehl's record drops to, 13-9-5 with a GAA of 2.63 and a save percentage of .916.

February 21, 2013

This weekend your Johnstown Tomahawks will battle the Fresno Monsters at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena.

Currently, the Johnstown Tomahawks have a record of 22-18-10 good for 54 points and fourth place in the North division. The Fresno Monsters are having a bad year as they have a record coming into the weekend of 12-28-6, good for 30 points and last place in the West division. But because their division only has four teams this year they will still make the playoffs.

These two teams played each other back in December when Fresno hosted the traveling Tomahawks. Johnstown won both games, 6-1 and 4-3. Colin Brennan played in both games. For Fresno, Macauley Haight and Tomas Sholl split time in net, each picking up a loss.

So far, Andrew McDonald leads the Tomahawks in scoring against the Monsters. In two games, McDonald has one goal, three assists, and four points. The scoring leader for the Monsters is Matt Salituro. In the two games vs Johnstown he has two goals, one assist for three points. Salituro also picked up one assist vs Johnstown when he was playing for the Janesville Jets at the beginning of the season.

Speical Teams:

Johnstown

Power Play- 18.8% 3rd in the league
Penalty Kill- 84.3 14th in the league

Fresno

Power Play- 12.8 20th in the league
Penalty Kill- 82.4 17th in the league

Records:

Johnstown (at home) 12-10-4
Fresno (away) 5-11-2

Notes:

Fresno is on a 10 game losing streak. Their last win came on 1/19/2013 vs Wenatchee, 4-3.

When Johnstown leads after two periods they are 16-2-2.

When Fresno out shoots an opponent they are 3-7-0

With Johnstown's last game selling out their average attendance is now up to 2,420. That's good for 5th in the league.

Best Photo from Last Weekend:

Taken by TheTomablog contributor Tami Knopsnyder. Gylling in his first NAHL fight vs Kerr.

Links:

The Tomahawks have their official game preview up on their website which you can get to by clicking here.

The Johnstown Tomahawks are holding voting for their first ever "Tomahawks Awards". Make sure you vote and you can do so by clicking here.

The Playoffs are getting closer, so make sure you follow up on how the playoff formatting works. The representative from the Johnstown Tomahawks facebook page was able to pass me along the information. Check it out here. For those Johnstown Chiefs fans, it reminds me a lot of the ECHL in terms of how the division we're in is different than everybody else.

Reminders:

We will have a Gameday Preview sometime on Friday and then a Recap/Preview of game two on Saturday.

Follow us now on Facebook. Link is in the side bar.

Also make sure you are following the teams official Twitter, Facebook, and Website for official news and updates. Our goal here is just to show support for the team and hopefully funnel interested fans to the team. And if you're like us, you just can't get enough Johnstown hockey and that's one of the reasons we started this blog.

"The Staff on the Ice" is an eight part series about the people in the
Tomahawks' front office and the coaches that at one point or another played Pro,
College, and/or Junior hockey. Some of the people you'll know all about, like
Jason Spence, but there might be one or two that you didn't know played hockey
themselves.

Welcome to part two which will focus on the junior playing career of current Johnstown Tomhawks' equipment manager, Ian O'Brien. O'Brien is no stranger to the Cambria County War Memorial arena. This is where he played his high school hockey while at Westmont and where his father, Toby O'Brien, was the Johnstown Chiefs general manager, he also coached the team for three years.

February 20, 2013

The last game of the tournament just ending moments ago with Great Lakes losing to Midwest, 5-2. Midwest had a 3-1 lead until Johnstown Tomahawks' forward, Cody Gylling scored on Janesville Jets goalie, Brock Kautz, to pull Great Lakes within one. But as the score shows, this is as close as they would get in the loss.

Mitch Kontny received an assist on the Gylling goal along with Luc Gerdes of the Jamestown Ironmen. Casey Nelson, and Andrew McDonald did not record a point in the last game of the tournament.

Former Johnstown forward, Brandon Brossit had a big game vs Great Lakes today as he scored one goal and assisted on two others.

Midwest out shot Great Lakes, 34-23. Brock Kautz played the whole game in net for Midwest, making 21 saves on 23 shots. For Great Lakes, Michigan Warriors' Trevor Gorsuch played the first half of the game allowing only one goal. Then Port Huron's Max Milosek came in for the rest of the game allowing the last four goals.

The title says it all. The second game of the three game tournament schedule is over for the Great Lakes team and they won tonight by a score of 4-2, over Texas. Of the four goals scored by Great Lakes, at least one Johnstown player factored on every goal.

In the first period Great Lakes took the lead at the 2:24 mark when Johnstown captain, Mitch Kontny, put one past goaltender, Hayden Stewart. Getting the assists on the goal were Tyler Dunagan (Jamestown Ironmen) and Andrew McDonald (Johnstown Tomahawks).

Then in the second period, now down 2-1, Great Lakes scored the only goal of the period, coming off the stick of Cody Gylling. The assists went to Sean Murphy (Soo Eagles) and Martin Gruse (Michigan Warriors).

With the game tied at two and time winding down Great Lakes would take the lead. At 13:49 Sean Murphy would score, giving him his second point of the night, with the assist coming from Johnstown defensman, Casey Nelson. Then with less than a minute left in the game Mitch Kontny would score his second goal of the game, being set up by Port Huron's Rick DeRosa.

February 18, 2013

The first day of the NAHL Top Prospects tournament is in the books and all three games saw exciting action for those in the crowd, the scouts, and all those people watching on fasthockey.com

The last game was a final score of Texas 5 and Frontier 3. In the game former Johnstown Tomahawks' player, Gage Christiason, had one assist (on Texas's first goal of the game) while having a rating of +1 and one shot on net. Texas also got the lead on shots 49-48.

The middle game of the day featured the Midwest playing the NAHL U18 team. One player from Johnstown is on the U18 roster, JB Baker. Midwest won the game in a shootout, 4-3. Midwest also won in shots, 51-48. Baker did not score in the game, nor did he take a shot in the shootout, however he did manage to fire four shots on net in the game. Also in the game playing for Midwest was former Johnstown forward, Brandon Brossoit. He did not register any points during the game, had a rating of -1 with two shots on net. Brossoit was the fifth shooter for Midwest in the shootout but he failed to score.

February 17, 2013

The Wenatchee Wild are a skilled hockey team. Seeing the Wild play first hand, they'd probably wipe the floor with the best team we've seen thus far, the Soo Eagles. With that being said, the Tomahawks played a whole 60-minutes last night but still just came up a goal short.

The first period ended with both teams tied at zero but that didn't mean the game wasn't exciting up to that point. Many scoring chances for both teams, big hits, and even a big scrum behind the night, which resulted in Cody Boyd getting a game misconduct. (two minutes for instigating, five for fighting, and a game misconduct.)

Starting the second period the Tomahawks still had 3:03 left to kill in Boyd's fighting major. It only took :48 seconds into the period for Wenatchee to get the first goal of the game, Max McHugh assisted by Trevor Stewart.

Jordan Watt, who was serving Boyd's penalty, came out of the box giving Johnstown the man advantage. Instead of heading into the defensive zone, Watt, stood at the offensive blue line and waited for a pass. That pass came perfectly from Mitch Hall sending Watt on a breakaway. Watt was able to get day light in between Nichols' legs and score the game tying goal.

February 16, 2013

There's a saying in hockey, "you can't win in the first period but you can loose in the first period" and that's exactly what happened last night at the Cambria County War Memorial. In the first period Wenatchee looked like a team from the NHL playing an ECHL team. They were faster, bigger, hit more, made great passes, and got everything on net. They also scored two goals in the period, the second being the game winner.

What looked like a long night ahead for Johnstown turned into a hard fought game. In the second period, Mitch Hall, off the faceoff blasted one by Robert Nichols. It was a shorthanded goal assisted by Cody Gylling. The team began to use the body, they started to move their feet instead of watching, they made smart plays which resulted in many scoring chances and they would out shot the Wild 23-22 after ending the first trailing, 14-4.

Cody Boyd played one of the best games I've seen him play for Johnstown this season. He seemed to get to every lose puck first, he backchecked relentlessly, and he took the body every chance he got.

February 15, 2013

Your fourth place Johnstown Tomahawks will do battle against the league's third best team, the Wenatchee Wild. Puck will drop at 7:00pm at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena, where the team is averaging 2,383 fans a game.

Before we do our little breakdown of the game, let's check out some important links.

Mike Mastovich has a great article in the Tribune Democrat today about tonight's game and how Wenatchee's owner and the Johnstown ownership has worked closely with each other this year.

Mike Gosnell from Juniorhockey.com has his weekend preview and who he'll be scouting during these next two games.

This will be a big game for the Tomahawks as they try and build a larger gap between themselves and Port Huron in the standings. Johnstown comes into the game with 54 points and in sole possession of fourth place. Port Huron has 49 points, as they try to take over that last playoff spot.

February 14, 2013

The NAHL Top Prospects Tournament will be held this upcoming Monday (2/18/2013) thru Wednesday (2/20/2013) in Troy Michigan. The event not only will bring the top talent in each division together to play a small tournament in front of scouts at the NHL and college level but the event will showcase all 17 teams in the NA3HL and host the NAPHL championship series.

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) will host their annual Top Prospects Tournament for the 2012-13 season in Troy, Michigan. The NAHL Top Prospects Tournament is an annual event which showcases some of the best talent the NAHL has to offer, while providing participating student-athletes unparalleled competition and exposure to the college and professional coaches and scouts

Each NAHL team will play three games, one a day. The six teams broken down into division are:

February 13, 2013

(On Friday we'll have a game day preview, where we'll break down all the story lines, keys to the game, and a look around the other North division matchups.)

The above picture shows the results the first time the Tomahawks played the Wild. Only seconds earlier Jordan Watt scored in OT to give Johnstown the 4-3 overtime win. The following night the Tomahawks weren't so lucky as they fell to Wenatchee in a defensive battle, 1-0. This weekend (2/15/2013, 2/16/2013) the two teams will battle once again, only this time in the friendly confines of the Cambria County War Memorial Arena.

Johnstown enters the weekend with a record of 22-16-10 good for fourth place in the north division, 54 points. Wenatchee comes the CCWM with a record of 33-7-4 good for first in the west division, 70 points, and third overall in league standings.

Before we look deeper into this weekends matchup lets go back to November 30th and Decemeber 1st when these two teams first met each other in Johnstown Tomahawks' franchise history. As stated before, the Tomahawks won the first game, 4-3 in overtime. The Wild outshot the Tomahawks 37-29, Truehl turning away 34 shots, and Nichols turning away 25. NAHL boxscore

February 12, 2013

Back on February 2, 2013 the Kalamazoo Jr K-Wings announced that after the conclusion of the 2012-2013 season they will cease operations as a team in the NAHL. This was only the K-Wings second season in the league.

Stadium Management Company (SMC), which owns the Wings Stadium Complex, Wings West and the Kalamazoo Wings announce that the Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings will cease operations following the conclusion of the 2012-13 North American Hockey League (NAHL) season. Tough economic conditions in this small marketplace, already home to both Western Michigan University Hockey and the Kalamazoo Wings made business success impossible to achieve.

Currently Kalamazoo is sitting last in the league in attendance. They held twenty home games thus far this season and have only had a total of 7,140 people walk through the gates. That averages to 357 people per game. Just to compare, Johnstown this season is 5th so far this season in average attendance and 4th in attendance total. (57,200 total, 2,383 average after 24 home games.)

You should note that two of those "home games" took place back in September during the NAHL showcase. In my opinion those two games shouldn't count for any of the teams but it does. The first game vs Brooking the attendance was 1,342. The second game vs Kenai River was the same exact total which leads me to believe that the league counted how many people went to the whole showcase and gave that attendance to all the clubs.

The NAHL for the 2012-2013 season has 24 teams in it's league. With the Minnesota Magicians beginning play next year the same amount of teams will remain. (unless of course another team decides to close up shop.)

It will be interesting if any of the K-wing players will tryout with Johnstown next season. A few players that I would love to see in a Tomahawks' jersey would be Forward Luc Boby, Defensemen Brett Beauvais, Brendan Vetter, and both goalies Alex Okicki and Marcus Due-Boje. Most likely those players won't be on the team but a fan can dream.

February 11, 2013

"The Staff on the Ice" will be an eight part series about the people in the Tomahawks front office and the coaches that at one point or another played Pro, College, and/or Junior hockey. Some of the people you'll know all about, like Jason Spence, but there might be one or two that you didn't know played hockey themselves.

Today we look at Whitney Pappas's playing career. Pappas is currently the Tomahawks Game-day Operations and Community Relations Manager. Before joining the Tomahawks organization she attended Robert Morris University were she played four season with the Colonials.When Pappas joined Robert Morris for their 2007-2008 season she had just come from back to back titles playing for Belle Tire (Michigan State Champions). Even before then when she was playing high school hockey in her home state of Colorado she scored 146 points in 246 varsity games.

February 10, 2013

Almost mid-way into the game, feisty 'Hawks forward, JB Baker netted his sixth goal of the season. This would turn out to be the game winning goal as your Tomahawks beat the Janesville Jets 3-1. In a game where Janesville made history by recording their first sellout in franchise history the Tomahawks, led by Truehl, were able to pick up the two points.

Only 2:36 into the first period Jets' Sullivan was able to beat Chris Truehl, to make the game 1-0. But later in the period the Tomahawks were able to capitalize on the power play getting a goal from Mitch Hall, assisted by Brandon Reinholz. Johnstown would end the game 1 for 3 on the power play.

The second period would see only one goal (which was the game winner) scored by JB Baker and assists coming from Kessler and Nelson. As I stated in the "three keys to the game", the Tomahawks needed to get some scoring from their other lines. That's just what happened tonight.

But Gylling and Watt weren't held off the score board all together, instead they helped set up the insurance goal, 5:56 into the third period. It was Nelson's tenth goal of the season and second point of the night.

February 9, 2013

After losing last night in a shootout the Tomahawks will be looking for revenge tonight when they battle the same Janesville Jets at Janesville Ice Arena.

Remember, you can watch the game tonight on FASThockey. You can also receive great live game updates via the Johnstown Tomahawks Twitter @Johnstownhawks or from their facebook page. For up to the minute stats you can visit http://nahl.com/ and will we have a recap of tonight's game Sunday afternoon.

Last night the 'Hawks power play was 2 for 9 which helped their special teams move from the fifth best to the leagues third best power play. As one of our Key's to the Game yesterday stated, Johnstown needed to move the puck around better and get more shots on net. Well, they did just that last night and converted when they needed to. Hopefully that continues tonight.

Matt Williams played his first game with the Tomahawks last night and looked like he'll be a good player for Johnstown. Late in yesterday's game, Williams had an excellent chance right in front of the yet and would have scored if not for Jets' goalie, Kautz, who stood on his head all night long. Williams will try again tonight to get his first point in a Johnstown jersey.

There were a few scrums in last nights game and one fight. Only 27 seconds into the second period Cody Boyd got tangled up with a Janesville player who challenged him to drop the gloves. As Boyd agreed, Jets' captain Conor Lemirande jumped in and fought for his teammate. Because of this, Lemirande was given five minutes for fighting, two minutes for instigating (could have been called for 3rd man in), and a game misconduct. Boyd was only given five minutes for fighting.

February 8, 2013

(Tomorrow we will have Game 2 Preview, Plus we'll take a more detailed look into tonight's shootout loss)

The Tomahawks had a two goal lead in the first period only to see themselves trailing 3-2 half way through the 2nd period. Then Jordan Watt scored on the power play to tie the game at three. There would be no more scoring in regulation nor in the overtime period.

In the shootout Johnstown's fourth shooter, Watt, was able to beat Janesville's goalie to tie the shoot out 1-1. But on their fifth shot to win the game, Jets' Himley, was able to beat Brennan for the extra point.

Both teams once again will face off against each other tomorrow night.

Make sure to read Johnstown Tomahawks official game preview here, written by Suzanne Grove.

You can watch the game tonight on FASThockey, you can also receive great live game updates via the Johnstown Tomahawks Twitter @Johnstownhawks or from their facebook page. For up to the minute stats you can visit http://nahl.com/ and will we have a recap and game two preview Saturday afternoon.

Alright...

Tonight your Johnstown Tomahawks face the Janesville Jets at Janesville Ice Arena. This will be the 3rd out of 4 meetings these two teams will have this year. The first two meetings took place at the beginning of the season in Johnstown, with Johnstown winning both games.

The first match up was on October 6, 2012 and saw the Tomahawks beat the Jets, 5-3. Engum was in net for Johnstown allowing three goals on eleven shots. Johnstown out shot Janesville in their first meeting 38-11. The goal scorers in the game for Johnstown were Kontny, McCombs, Brossoit, Nelson, and Gylling. You can see the whole boxscore from that game here.

The following night the Tomahawks would pick up the sweep over Janesville by winning 4-1. Engum picked up the victory in this game as well. Johnstown once again out shot Janesville this time 46-17. Johnstown's goal scorers for the night were Kontny (twice), Watt, and Wallace. At the center ice faceoff to start the third period Jesse Kessler fought David Becker, Becker has since been released from the Jets. You can read the whole boxscore from that game here.

Before we get to the Key Stats, Player Profiles, Key's to the Weekend, and Links, let's catch up on some of the things that Janesville has been up to since these two teams last met.

Kautz has received the majority of the starts but
has a subpar record of 11-14-7

For the Tomahawks, this weekend in Janesville will
prove to be a huge opportunity for the Tomahawks to gain ground in the
standings.

Mitch Kontny, the team captain, has arguably been
one of the Tomahawks best players through the past few games. He has a six game
point streak and will look to build upon his already impressive numbers.

Cody Gylling and Casey Nelson have also been
impressive.

Gylling leads the Tomahawks in goals, while Nelson
is the chief chance producer because of his penchant for shooting the puck.

Friday will be the debut of new Tomahawk forward
Matt Williams, who was acquired from the Coulee Region Chill.

Chris Treuehl began playing hockey at the age of six years old. The Stoughton, WI native, told Connectstoughton.com late last year that he was hooked from the first time he stopped his brother from scoring.

The first club he played for was the Madison Capitals U16 team in '09-10. During this season Truehl would post a GAA of 3.49 and a save percentage of .886. Also on that roster was current Kalamazoo Jr K-Wings D-man Brendan Vetter, and current Janesville Jets captain Conor Lemirande.

The following year he returned to play for the Madison Capitals U18 team. In that '10-11 season he posted a GAA of 3.80 and a save percentage of .901 in 22 games. Truehl would not see his save percentage dip below .900 again except for one game, which we will see a little later. Vetter and Lemirande were also on this club.

During the offseason the NAHL's Janesville Jets came calling and Tendered Truehl for the 2011-2012 season. Also tendered was long time teammate Conor Lemirande and former Johnstown Tomahawk Bobby Tritschler.

Nagelvoort is a goalie that I would have loved to have on my team. A debate could be had about who had the best goalie tandem in the league. Truehl and Brennan have worked well together but in my mind there's been no better tandem then Marble and Nagelvoort.

Via hockeydb, here is Nagelvoort's career numbers:

He hasn't got much playing time but when he has seen time between the pipes he has done quite well. So, Soo probably got the better end of the deal right? Cause they did get two players for one. Stat wise it doesn't look that way. Now Marble's back up is Paige Skoog.

Win/lose isn't great but then again Aberden only has ten wins all season. The key into seeing how good a goalie really is on a bad team is his save percentage. Anything about 90% is considered good. He's right there at .905. Nagelvoort on the other hand was making .927% of his saves.

This past weekend the Port Huron Fighting Falcons and the Soo
Eagles paid a visit to the historic Cambria County War Memorial. Both of these
teams are opponents the Tomahawks don’t seem to like very much and always have
highly spirited contests against. Let’s take a quick look at what went right,
wrong, and what left me saying “what just happened”.

The GoodFirst off,
let’s start with what went well for the ‘Hawks. Scoring has been a bit of an
issue in recent weeks but this weekend the ‘Hawks seemed to be clicking like it
was October. Thursday’s game saw the usual goal scorers light the lamp but also
saw the fiery spark plug forward JB Baker deposit one in the cage. It’s nice to
see everyone chipping in some offense in the later months of the season. The
‘Hawks scored a total of 11 goals over the three game weekend which should have
been enough to notch three victories, but we will deal with why it wasn’t a bit
later.Johnstown’s physical play made the visiting defensemen think twice when
going to play the puck in the corners, which coming from a Jason Spence coached
team is what Johnstown fans come to expect. Spence has very clearly made hard
hitting a center piece of this NAHL squad.

The Johnstown Tomahawks added a forward to the teams roster today via trade. The Tomahawks made a trade with Central division Coulee Region, acquiring Matt Williams. There is no information yet if the Tomahawks traded any one from their roster or if Coulee Region was sent a draft pick. When/if more information is available we will forward it to everyone.

Williams is a 6'1 175lb forward from Rochester Hills MI. The 21-year old forward has played in 41 games this season scoring 18 points.

Via hockeydb.com:

His stats aren't overly impressive but keep in mind what team he is coming from. Coulee Region currently sits fifth out of six teams in the central division with a record of 11-27-0. Williams was sixth on the roster in scoring, and second on the team in penalty minutes.

February 4, 2013

There have been a total of 13 players to suit up with the
Johnstown Tomahawks this season that no longer wear the teams colors. Some of
those players were traded away for current players on the roster. Others were
released from the team due to skill level, poor performance, roster space, etc.

Let’s take a look at these 13 former players and see where
they’re playing now and how they’re producing on the ice for their new clubs. We’ll
go from trades to releases but in no sort of order within those two categories.

Traded Players:

Kristaps Bazevics- D

Bazevices
is the most recent trade for the Tomahawks. He’s the defenseman the ‘Hawks
traded to acquire home grown Corey Schafer. I was a fan of Bazevics play and
thought he was one of the team’s better skaters and when given the chance had
one hell of a shot.Here is his stat comparison for his time with the Tomahawks and his stats so far with Wichita Falls (Games-goals-assists-points-penalty minutes)

This past weekend vs Port Huron fans saw most of the Tomahawks' players looking to fight Mick Bruce, Bobby Brown, and the cage wearing Ian Miller for many different on ice reasons. It got me thinking about how many fights has this team (Johnstown) been involved in this year. I was surprised of the numbers.

Via hockeyfights.com

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Johnstown is third in the league in fighting majors. Interesting to note, Wenatchee is in first with 37. That's the same Wild team we face next home stand.

So who's been the leading tough guy on our team? Jake Fairchild with five, and Boyd close behind. But it's not just one guy doing the dirty work. As you'll see below it's been a team effort when it comes to sticking up for each other.

Garrett Forrest, James Vuillemot, and Matthew Wipper were invited to skate with the Johnstown Tomahawks last week. It was the first step toward building a solid working relationship between the two programs. "Johnstown is a solid NAHL program with good proximity to us. They've been great about helping us out and we'll continue to do the same for them. In the end it will benefit both of our organizations and our players," commented Patriots GM RJ Zeigler.

Great idea.

Just another thing that shows that the Tomahawk management "gets it" when it comes building the team on and off the ice. It's things like this that will build talent in Johnstown and make them battling for the Robertson Cup for years to come.

Garrett Forrest stats via EJHL-S website:

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James Vuillemot stats via EJHL-S website:

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Vuillemot already has good size at 6'2 185. He is 18 years old, you know, in case you were wondering.

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